City of Toronto officials are being asked to preserve large Etobicoke Estate Lots to prevent developers from snapping them up for their land to build condos.
Deputy Mayor Stephen Holyday, the Councillor of Ward 2, Etobicoke Centre, on October 7 wrote a letter requesting that Etobicoke York Community Council ask City Planning to identify and protect residential estate lots, with frontages of more than 66-feet, from “being severed through consent applications, thereby changing the character of the area.”
“Etobicoke is home to very unique neighbourhoods which contain clusters of large wide lots which could be called Estate Lots’” according to Holyday. “When visiting these places, there is no doubt of the history and that the intent of the designers was deliberate in their quantity, pattern, organization and spacing of the lots and buildings.”
He wrote that ‘over decades planners and developers implemented deliberate and calculated visions to create places that we call home.’
“Attributes which define our neighbourhoods include the pattern of lot subdivision, green and open spaces, size, massing and building setbacks,” according to Holyday. “When visiting an adequately protected neighbourhood, the intended experience of the place designers is still felt today.”
He said ‘residents choose to live in them because of these desirable attributes, and understandably support measures to maintain them.’
Some examples of our Estate Lot neighbourhoods include Humber Heights, Lorraine Gardens, Eatonville, Kingsview Village, Humber Valley, Princess Anne Manor, Thorncrest and The Kingsway.
“Despite the zoning standards, these neighbourhoods are constantly under threat by speculative developers who seek to sever the wide lots and make a profit in the buoyant real estate market,” Holyday warned. ”Our current planning policies make it difficult to distinguish a legitimate infill development of underutilized land from a direct attack on a neighbourhood’s character.”
He said ‘our system to permit consents allows for persistent attacks which erode Estate Lot clusters over time, and may eventually lead to their collapse.’
Holyday said other municipalities in Ontario have taken steps to recognize the value of Estate Lot neighbourhoods and have ‘implemented tools to preserve them, and help protect them from speculative development and the incremental loss of their integrity over time.’
This motion was considered by Etobicoke York Community Council on October 8 and adopted without amendment. It now goes before a full Council vote.